Always Remember
by headaches4ever
Summary: Naruto and Sasuke duke it out for the last time.


Always Remember

He was sitting near the edge of a huge precipice. If you looked down you could see nothing but black, it went on forever and ever. The boy, more of a man glanced from the spectacle to the wide torn up lands in front of him.

As he looked to the sky tears fell from his cheeks.

Sasuke was crying.

Not bawling, Sasuke was not the kind of person who let his emotions run rampant: unchecked. Simply, tears were falling from his eyes.

This was a big event for Sasuke, he hadn't cried since Itatchi had slaughtered his family, friends, and everything inside him that mattered. In fact Itatchi had destroyed all aspects of the boy named Sasuke, and replaced it with a hate fed adolescent hungry for power and blood.

Sasuke had blood now. A lot of it, he was stained in red. After hungering for just what he had gotten, power and blood, he didn't want it anymore.

It was as if he had opened his eyes for the first time since he was seven. He didn't like what he saw. He had become a monster and he hurt more inside than he can ever remember. This pain was worse than all the times he had had the shit beaten out of him by Itatchi, Kakashi, Naruto, Orochimaru and every one else who resented his Uchiha lineage. Put together.

The sun beat down on Sasuke's face as he blinked away more tears. It felt warm.

It was warm, warm as his lap, soaked with the blood of his comrade.

Why had this happened?

Sasuke had defeated Orochimaru, finally. He had absorbed, neutralizing his power, the power that Sasuke had gained, and thought he had won against. Apparently not. Ever since their battle, Sasuke had heard tantalizing thoughts that poisoned his mind. It made him believe things. Sasuke fought this. He screamed while he was sleeping, when the voices whispered, spoke, shouted at night, he would scream back. Fighting, always fighting.

He became tired. Sasuke gave up, let the voice sway him.

Now, his best friend, no, more than that, one of Sasuke's 'special people' as he referred to them, lay dying in his lap.

Naruto was fading. Fast. His blue eyes were glazing over with semi-opaque white film. He too was crying.

Sasuke could feel Naruto's blood sinking into his clothes, a stain that would never be removed. Naruto was bleeding, a lot. Bleeding so much. His tears were fusing with the blood that streamed from a deep wound above his right eye. His abdomen was ripped open , his right leg was broken as well as his left wrist. Despite this he had kept fighting against his 'special person', in desperate hopes to save Sasuke from his own mind. He fought until Sasuke had taken Naruto by the hair and kicked into his back, snapping it. Naruto crumpled.

Sasuke smirking at his win, he would finally be able to beat his estranged brother, kill the man that had turned him into this, a killer. His smile faded. His eyes cleared, the voice dissipated.

No.

He didn't want to be this.

Sasuke fell to his knees, holding a pale hand to the tan face. It was cold. He took the bloody, blonde head into his lap. Cradling it with as much care as one as cold as himself could offer. Naruto blinked. He looked at Sasuke, who wasn't completely unscratched himself, far from it. Naruto had kicked his ass. He truly was a good ninja. Sasuke wanted for him to have won. With all his heart, he wished he didn't have to see Naruto like this.

Where was his smile?

Sasuke's tears dripped onto Naruto's face. He acknowledged this, and reached up a bloody hand to his face. He touched Sasuke's tears on his own face. He smiled and brushed Sasuke's cheek, smearing blood all across it.

"It's you," He said weakly, "I'm so glad you're back."

"Yeah, It's me dobe." More tears.

Sasuke embraced all of Naruto gently. He groaned.

Sasuke knew that he was absolutely no good at medical jutsus, they had always had Sakura, or later when Sasuke had Kabuto to fix all the problems. He never bothered to learn to heal, he was in the business of killing. He had never thought that there would never be an occasion where he would need, let alone want to save somebody. Sasuke was useless, and it killed him.

"I... can't," He looked into Naruto's filmy, yet warm eyes, "Naruto, I can't...save you."

"It's okay." The blonde hacked up blood violently, "I saved you, right?"

"yeah, you did..." He smiled.

Not a smirk, not a critical laugh, an actual smile. As far as Naruto knew, it was a first. Maybe it was this unfeigned emotion that comforted Naruto in his last moments, maybe it was that he knew he had fixed something, fixed Sasuke, the first thing that he felt he had ever done right.

Sasuke bent forward to Naruto again, and kissed him.

It lasted just a few moments. As he pulled away, the pale, black haired boy saw his friend smile back.

Maybe it was that which eased him towards death.

Again, Naruto coughed. He was dying, but it felt like more. He felt alive too, alive for Sasuke.

The Uchiha licked his lips, they were very dry from the heated day, as well as the intense fight. It tasted salty from Naruto. He had probably eaten ramen before he confronted his friend turned enemy or enemy turned friend, or some awkward combination of both. He thought back to the times when he was part of team seven, part of a world that respected him, where he was welcome. He had resented that though. Sasuke had thought skeptically of all of those people, he regretted it now. He had thought up all the ways each would die. He had figured Sakura would kill herself. She was too sensitive and too dramatic. She reveled in the images she had in her head of how people would react to her suicide. Kakashi would've died of a heart attack induced by a lazy life style, and unhealthy eating habits. Just like how he thought Naruto would have died. He would've died old and fat from eating that damn ramen.

Sasuke was obviously wrong.

Sakura was beautiful and engaged. She was lovely, happy and skilled, nothing that Sasuke had predicted. Her upcoming marriage to Kiba was as unexpected as it was successful. In his recently obtained clean mind, Sasuke realized he was happy for her. Kakashi was also still alive, but following the prediction to the very detail, the bastard probably wouldn't die anytime soon, again he was glad. Naruto, though still eating ramen, was not fat. He was emaciated from a mixture of fear for Sasuke, endless loneliness, and constant exercise.

All this pain and solitude was for Sasuke. Naruto needed him, more than anything. Naruto had never needed anything. Never. Aside from attention, Naruto never got, or wanted anything. All for Sasuke.

Naruto was indeed dying, but not how Sasuke had expected. Sasuke had not expected Naruto to be laying there, dying in his arms. And it was his own fault.

Damn Itatchi and Orochimaru for turning him into this. Damn them to hell.

Sasuke knew he could fix this, Sasuke had always been able to do everything.

"Naruto.." His voice was cracking, and he was still crying, the smile gone.

Probably forever.

"I am sorry for everything."

"It's okay..." he was going, "bastard"

"I love you." Tears were dripping in quick succession, but still not sobbing. Naruto deserved better than to see Sasuke falling apart in his last moments.

But Naruto never heard him.

He died with the grin that Sasuke had always remembered. And always would remember.


End file.
